English language
Published Jan. 5, 2007 by Hodder & Stoughton.
The inimitable Jasper Fforde gives readers another delightful mash-up of detective fiction and nursery rhyme, returning to those mean streets where no character is innocent. The Gingerbreadman?sadist, psychopath, cookie?is on the loose in Reading, but that?s not who Detective Jack Spratt and Sergeant Mary Mary are after. Instead, they?ve been demoted to searching for missing journalist ?Goldy? Hatchett. The last witnesses to see her alive were the reclusive Three Bears, and right away Spratt senses something furry?uh, funny?about their story, starting with the porridge. The Fourth Bear is a delirious new romp from our most irrepressible fabulist.
I've tried. This is the third Jasper Fforde I've embarked on and given up on in short order. Sorry Jasper. For all my love of supposedly similar writers (Pratchett, Gaiman, Adams) this entirely fails to connect, which makes me worry that I'm turning into the sort of person my parents always wanted me to be.
On par with The Big Over Easy, this is insane, fabulous, and wonderful.
Funny and engaging
